Freshly edited late in the evening of the 22nd, the review also happens to include a guide of what to expect in tommorrow’s gold medal finals in 5 weight classes.

51KG:

We arrive to the Worker’s Stadium late on US TV because of a Japan/Korea baseball game, thus depriving us of seeing Andry Lafitta/Georgy Balakshin. Highlights point out that it was a very close fight, with neither man ahead by more than one point at any time, and Lafitta scoring the winning point in the 9-8 contest with merely 3 seconds remaining. We are instead treated to Vincenzo Picardi’s rematch with Somjit Jongjohor from the World Championships. As the first one went. Jongjohor counters virtually everything of Picardi competently and wins by a wide 7-1 margin. Jongjohor is looking to win Olympic gold against the impressive young Cuban. He has pretty much all the advantages, and I expect him to take the title.

57KG: Vasyl Lomachenko easily strolls past Yakup Kilic to earn a berth in the gold medal round. Its a shame he’s talking about staying amateur to win 4 gold medals, as at 20 years of age and possessing his amateur experience and skillset, he’d be an incredible pro. Khedafi Djelkhir also moved on as part of a surprising French team. He was effective in close against Shahin Imranov of Azerbaijan in the first round, taking an early 2 point lead. In between rounds, Imranov complained about his elbow heavily and his corner retired him, giving Djelkhir a rare stoppage win. Lomachenko winning gold all but wraps up a Val Barker trophy for the Ukranian star.

64KG:

Manus Boonjumnong came in the defending gold medalist, but with little hype following some poor international results. He’s risen to the occasion in stunning fashion, and his comparatively wide 10-5 win over Roniel Iglasias was probably his biggest obstacle to a gold medal. The other semifinal saw a very controversial finish. Manuel Diaz had been attempting to charge forward with varying success against French boxer Alexis Vastine and the southpaw/orthodox clash led to a number of clinches. Vastine was warned and Diaz assigned 2 points in the 2nd round, tightening the score up. He kept the lead for most of the bout, but Diaz’s occasional attacks pushed him enough to tire him. Late in the final round, Diaz came up with 2 points to tie the bout at 10 all with approximately 30 seconds remaining. Following one of the many clinches in the fight, the ref then warned Vastine again, handing 2 points, the victory, and the chance at gold to Diaz. Vastine was inconsolable in the aftermath, and there’s been a significant number of questions about consistency to such calls, along with note of the numerous holding and headbutt verbals to Diaz. It can be argued either way, though Vastine was often more responsible for holding than Diaz, nor does the fact that the holding was called correctly when it wasn’t being called in other bouts mean it was a poor call.

75KG:

James DeGale wasn’t on many people’s short lists to win gold, particularly with Korobov, Artayev, Rasulov, and Correa around in his weight class. Yet he’s outlasted all but one of those names and made it to the gold medal round with a classic scientific boxing performance against Darren Sutherland. The story coming in was that Sutherland had won 4 of the 5 contests, but DeGale’s focus and committment to fighting from the outside made this 6th bout no real contest. Correa of Cuba joins him in the finals after an awkward but effective win against Indian fighter Vijender Kumar. The fight was close through 3 but Kumar’s attempts to go on offense in round 4 and win the fight gave Correa tons of counter opportunities. DeGale looks very strong though, and has to be thought of as a serious threat for gold.

91KG:

Osmay Acosta and Rakhim Chakhkiev opened the semis for the heavyweights, and Acosta looked like he might be too much with a stick and move style early. Chakhkiev’s aggression proved to be too much over the long haul, taking Acosta out of his game and forcing the fight inside to a 10-5 win. The other final saw the final American in the tournament, Deontay Wilder, taking on the awkward world champion Clemente Russo. Wilder did none of the things he needed to do to beat a smaller man; he regularly fell into Russo, never doubled his jab, never flashed an uppercut. Wilder won a bronze with an almost nonexistent skill set but plenty of enthusiasm and athleticism, but Russo won by a 7-1 margin in an otherwise dull fight. The rematch of the World Championship finals should be an interesting one, albiet not a high scoring fight.

 48KG:

Much was made of the few punches Paddy Barnes deserved credit for in the US telecast. Little was made of the fact that Zou Shiming of China basically dominated him from bell to bell. The slick boxer puncher had an easy time with Barnes, a limited brawler who did succeed in getting much further than anticipated. Not shown in the US was the fight between Yampier Hernandez of Cuba and Mongolia’s Purevdojiin Serdama. That bout ended in an 8-8 tie and was awarded to Serdama on the average score from each judge. Teddy and Bob Papa, however, insinuated the fix was in.

54KG:

Cuba’s Yankiel Leon had a tougher than expected time with Bruno Julie, particularly with a holding penalty awarded late in the 4th, yet won as expected. The awkward Julie led for a short time in round 2, but the low scoring affair always favored the superior all around skills of Leon. He meets Badar Uugan of Mongolia following his dominant 15-2 semifinal romp against Veaceslav Gojan of Romania in a bout not even highlights were shown of.

60KG:

Armenia’s first medal fell into their laps as the draw and fate converged to get Hrachik Javakhyan to the semis with merely a single fight. He was even compeitive through three with Russian favorite Aleksei Tishchenko, but Tishchenko pulled away in the last round to win 10-5. Highlights were then shown of Daouda Sow’s upset win against Yordenis Ugas, giving France its second final round berth.

69KG:

Hanati Silamu went to the body early and often, and much to the displeasure of the US announce crew, recieved virtually no points for it. Carlos Banteaux of Cuba landed numerous counters to the head that were counted, and he cruised in a fight much closer than the cards stated (17-4). Bakhyt Sarsekbayev beat an overmatched Korean to get into the gold medal round as well.

81KG:

As had been expected for some time, southpaw Kenneth Egan gets into the gold medal round, easily dispatching the one dimensional Brit, Tony Jeffries. To his and my surprise, he will be meeting Zhang Xiaoping there. Xiaoping got revenge for a prior loss to Yerkebuian Shynaliyev, winning on accepted points in a fight of which only rounds 3 and 4 were televised stateside, neither one of which being particularly interesting.

91+KG:

The run for David Price has come to an end. Roberto Cammarelle doesn’t look like a phenomenal pro prospect, but his counter skills hurt Price in the first round and droped Price nearly through the ropes in the second. The ref waived off the contest and Cammarelle is on his way to avenge his loss in Athens in 2004. He meets Zhang Zhilei of China there after Glazkov of the Ukraine pulled out with an arm injury and allowed Zhilei to win by walkover.

THE FINALS ON SATURDAY:

51KG:

Andry Lafitta vs. Somjit Jongjohor: Lafitta’s return to international competition could garner him his first gold at a major international competition as a senior. Jongjohor is in his final tournament and finds himself the favorite. Jongjohor and Lafitta have fought twice before, both times in 2005, splitting the series. Lafitta’s admitted of age of 30 is probably close to Jongjohor’s of 33 in reality. Stylistically, Jongjohor is bigger and uses his lanky arms to great effect. Lafitta looked uncomfortable with Georgy Balakshin, and I’m of the opinion that Jongjohor can only make his life tougher. It will be close as the prior two bouts were (24+:24 and 16:14), but Jongjohor takes Thailand’s first gold in boxing of this Olympics.

57KG:

Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Khedafi Djelkhir: Lomachenko has averaged a double digit win in each of his last 3 bouts. He can box and mix it up. Khedafi Djelkhir will bring the heat all night though, and no matter how good any fighter is, a pressure fighter is undeniably the toughest style to beat. The natural expectation is to take the guy who does more things better, and thus Lomachenko wins the gold and the Val Barker Trophy for best boxer of the Games. No one deserves it more.

64KG:

Manus Boonjumnong vs. Manuel Felix Diaz: Diaz likes to bullrush without a jab and clinch. Boonjumnong is a Thai (bad to clinch with) and love love loves guys with no head movement and no jab. The comeback is complete and soon Boonjumnong will have another $600,000 to blow on whores and opium.

75KG:

James DeGale vs. Emilio Correa: Listen, DeGale has as much talent as anyone around. If he can keep his head on his shoulders, Britain has yet another transcendent boxing star on its hands. As if Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, Amir Khan, and David Haye weren’t enough, here’s one more for the pile. Correa’s tight defense is hardly impregnable, and the fast hands of the much lesser Vijender Kumar exposed the path to DeGale standing on the podium.

91KG:

Rakhim Chakhkiev vs. Clemente Russo: I’ve seen this before, and it was kinda ugly then. Expect more ugliness and less scoring than even their low scoring bout last year at the World Championships. It has the sincere possibility of a 1-1 draw going to ref judging. I like Chakhkiev in the rematch of the World Championships final, though. He’s got a strong offensive style and was able to bust up Russo decently in their first bout. Russo’s defense is hard to score against though, as Oleksander Usyk of the Ukraine discovered in their fight. The old adage of “it could go either way” is entirely true.

Following the Olympics, I’ll talk about the scoring, the potential scandal, the announcement of the AIBA forming a pro league (which no one wants to talk about) and why the American media might just want to try and devalue Olympic boxing. In the meantime, we got to the finals and they’re coming up fast.